A FIVE-year-old friendship between two women ended in a bitter feud after one of them bought a taxi business from the other without signing a contract.

Cab Co owner Julie Bailey agreed to sell her firm to her mechanic Darren Daltri and his fiancee Belinda without either parties hiring a lawyer to draw up legal documents.

The upshot was that there was a squabble over the vehicle inventory in which both sides battled over one car.

The dispute was finally resolved when Daltri set about the Mondeo with a 4ft wooden log smashing it to bits. It ended up in a scrap yard.

On Friday 31-year-old Daltri of Ash Grove, Macclesfield, denied criminal damage when he appeared before Macclesfield magistrates. He maintained the vehicle belonged to the fleet he had bought from Ms Bailey and that it was his to destroy if he wished.

But after a five-hour trial he was found guilty, fined £175 and ordered to pay £4,000 and £150 court costs.

He was conditionally discharged for one year after admitting throwing milk bottles at a mini bus and at Ms Bailey's home.

The rift - which also resulted in Daltri and his partner Belinda scrapping their wedding plans and telling Ms Bailey, who was to be their matron-of-honour to 'forget it' - triggered off a warning by consumer watchdogs to beware.